Composites One: One Person. 40 Sites. Full SB 253 Compliance.

Background

Composites One is the largest distributor of composite materials in North America. A family-owned, privately held company headquartered in Chicago, it employs approximately 1,000 people across more than 40 US distribution sites, with revenues exceeding $1.3 billion. The business operates through a multi-entity structure that includes US and Canadian operations and Aerovac, a manufacturer of process consumables with entities in the US, Italy, Brazil, France, and the UK, serving customers such as Airbus, Vestas, GE Vernova, and TPI.

Despite its scale, Composites One had no sustainability reporting infrastructure when it first engaged Sweep in August 2025. ESG had just been elevated to a strategic business initiative for the first time, driven by California’s SB 253 and growing customer pressure around EcoVadis performance.

Challenge

When California’s SB 253 and SB 261 came into force, Composites One found itself firmly in scope, and with almost no internal resources to respond. Carlye Lucey, Aerospace & Defense Compliance Manager, was handed the project as an addition to her existing role, with no dedicated ESG headcount.

The scale of the task was significant: 40+ sites, untracked refrigerant emissions, and a Scope 3 footprint estimated at 75–85% of total emissions – requiring the mapping of around 184 cost categories to GHG factors. Manual consultant-led options were evaluated, but all came with the same critical flaw: Composites One would not own its data.

Solution

Composites One selected Sweep following a recommendation from EcoVadis, choosing it over two other platforms for its product maturity, implementation support model, and data ownership model. Sweep’s team acted as a genuine extension of the internal team – building out the organizational hierarchy, configuring a SAP integration, and designing workflows around Composites One’s existing systems rather than asking the company to adapt to new ones.

Scope 1 and 2 were completed first, followed by Scope 3 from January 2026, with Sweep’s consultants working directly alongside the accounting team to map spend data across four Scope 3 categories. To future-proof the programme, every methodology, process, and workflow was documented inside a dedicated dashboard in Sweep, built specifically to support handover to future internal owners.

Impact

Within six months of implementation, Composites One moved from zero emissions reporting infrastructure to a fully operational, audit-ready GHG programme across all three scopes. The company filed its SB 261 climate risk disclosure voluntarily – ahead of requirement – with SB 253 data ready for submission.

• SB 261 filed voluntarily ahead of deadline; SB 253 Scope 1, 2 & 3 data fully compiled.
• All three scopes completed by a single person, supported by Sweep’s implementation team.
• 40+ US sites centralised into one platform via SAP integration and standardised workflows.
• Scope 3 completed in under five months, with 184 ERP cost categories mapped to GHG factors.
• Ongoing costs kept minimal: a part-time admin manages monthly data entry, eliminating the need for dedicated ESG headcount.
• Foundation in place for future regulations: the same data set can be extended to CSRD, additional US state requirements, or parent-company reporting without starting from scratch.